SpatialCover Tree Canopy Rhode Island

SpatialCover Tree Canopy Rhode Island is a high resolution (1 meter) tree cover data layer that provides baseline information on woody vegetation for Rhode Island in multiple formats to support improved management of tree resources and carbon quantification. It is derived from processing color infrared imagery from 2014 and LIDAR data flown in 2011. LIDAR is a remote sensing technology that enables accurate measurement of elevation for different ground surface types based on the light pulses reflected from the earth.

What can you do with SpatialCover Tree Canopy?

Approach

A Digital Surface Model (DSM) was created from first returns of the LIDAR point cloud data and bare earth elevations were removed from the DSM to derive an above ground surface model. Buildings and tree canopy were differentiated in the above ground surface model using color infrared imagery through an expert rule based classification system. Morphological filtering was used to fill small data gaps and improve the cartographic quality of the final product.